Bafana Bafana Placed in Pot 3 Ahead of World Cup Draw

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has announced that Bafana Bafana have been placed in Pot 3 ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw on 5 December.

The Final Draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup will determine how the hosts — Canada, Mexico and the USA — the 39 qualified teams, the two FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament placeholders and the four European play-off placeholders will be allocated into 12 groups of four teams each for the final competition.

Bafana Bafana qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2002. Although they featured at the 2010 edition, they did so as hosts.

Being placed in Pot 3 means Bafana Bafana will avoid the following teams in the group stage: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Pot 1: Canada, Mexico, USA, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany
Pot 2: Croatia, Morocco, Colombia, Uruguay, Switzerland, Japan, Senegal, IR Iran, Korea Republic, Ecuador, Austria, Australia
Pot 3: Norway, Panama, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Paraguay, Tunisia, Côte d’Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa

• Each group must have at least one, but no more than two UEFA teams drawn into it. Thus, four out of the 12 groups will contain two of the 16 UEFA teams (including the four play-off placeholders).

In addition, the following constraints have been established: Pot 1: • In pot 1, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as the host countries, will be identified by different coloured balls and, when drawn, will be assigned to position A1 for Mexico (green ball), B1 for Canada (red ball) and D1 for the USA (blue ball), as already established per the match schedule released on 4 February 2024.

• The remaining nine top-ranked teams in pot 1 will be identified by nine balls of the same colour (white) and will be automatically allocated to position 1 of the group into which they are drawn. • In the interest of ensuring competitive balance, two separate pathways to the semi-finals have been established, as per Appendix A below.

The highest ranked team and the second highest-ranked team will be randomly drawn into groups in opposite pathways, and the same principle will also apply to the third and fourth highest ranked teams. This will ensure that, should they win their groups, the two highest-ranked teams would not meet before the final. Pots 2 to 4:

• For pots 2, 3 and 4, a predetermined pattern has been established to define the group position that teams are drawn into, depending on which pot they come from (Appendix B). Pot 4:

• Pot 4 includes the two placeholders for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament winners and four placeholders for the European play-off winners.

• The FIFA World Cup 2026 Play-Off Tournament will consist of two pathways in order to determine the winners of the two remaining slots at the FIFA World Cup 2026. Both pathways will include three teams, with only one seeded team per pathway.

Each pathway will be composed of teams from three different confederations, with no pathway having more than one team from the same confederation. In order to comply with FIFA’s general principle to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation 3 Draw Procedures for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ drawn into it, the Confederation constraint will be applied to all three teams within each pathway of the two Play-Off Tournament placeholders in pot 4.

DRAW PROCEDURES

1. The four pots representing the teams will be labelled 1 to 4. In each pot, there will be 12 balls with the country name of each qualified team.

2. The draw will start by drawing the three host country teams, with the green ball representing Mexico to be drawn first.

Mexico will be placed in Group A as team A1. Next, the red ball representing Canada will be drawn and placed in Group B as team B1. The blue ball representing the USA will then be drawn and placed in Group D as team D1.

3. Following the drawing of the three host country teams, the draw will continue by drawing all of the remaining nine teams from pot 1.

4. After all of the teams from pot 1 have been drawn into their respective groups, the draw will continue by drawing all of the teams from pots 2, 3 and 4, in that order, with each pot being emptied before moving on to the next one.

5. The draw will conclude once all teams from pot 4 have been drawn into a group.